All through the summer of this year we wondered and worried.
Would we make it in Autumn? Were we lumbered with a place in La France that we would not be able to get to, and what was happening in it and on it, anyway? We mused about the wisdom of our investment, pondered afresh about putting it on the market just as soon as we could get to it, get it evaluated, get it on the market, get it sold, get out, get gone. Pandemics do that sort of thing to your reasoning.
Number one is a modest little house, we know that. A bit of an ugly duckling down there on Rue Fortuné Bernard under its jacket of ageing cement render, behind its shutters of green faded Farrow & Ball… Like so many houses in Sablet the house employs right angled corners sparingly so that the plan is almost a rough diamond shape. With one straight side, constant to each floor, the back wall.
Inside though most things are just about the way we want them to be (OK the bathroom could do with conversion to a wet room configuration, and in a perfect world we might be signing up for a kitchen make-over to include a dishwasher, as the current dishwasher is deemed to be not up to scratch, an assertion I resent and reject, being that dishwasher). But the sun pours in and there are three floors to play in, a terrace to catch a chill on (as it faces North and gets only some sun except in summer when there is always shade available, thankfully) and enough space to put things and never feel cramped. Long views too. All good, well mostly. Another sofa? hmm…
Only draw back — no garden. Thought it wouldn't matter but increasingly it does… terrace flowers and plants are fine in their way but they always end up dying of thirst or cold in our absences.
So in 2020 we were only able to make just the one visit. Residency number twenty-three. And satisfaction and pleasure at being back abounded. No talk of agents, but a determination to hold on to this homely house for a few more years, while we can. I walked round it on a sunny morning and took most of the images herewith in just a few minutes; didn't bother to put things away and move things around (the chairs are regularly shunted and rearranged). Just recording a very modest place we like and have made our retreat in the Vaucluse. We go out from it and we come back to it. No. 1 Rue FB still suits us. Mrs Melling and self haven't missed a year with at least some time in France since we first signed on the dotted, plighted troths etc. etc. This has been HQ France since 2012.
A close call though this 2020 year of distress, but we made it, here we came and here we will return…
